Last week, we had a home work on Calculating Donation Summaries using Excel Formulas. This is a good case where array formulas can help us. So today, we will learn how we can use Array Formulas to compare lists of values and calculate summaries. Towards the end of this post, you can see a video that explains the solution to Donation Summary Calculation problem.
Comparing List of Values – Different Scenarios
There are 2 scenarios when we compare lists of values.
- Comparing a list of values with a single value (or condition)
- Comparing a list of values against another list (array comparison)
Comparing a list of values with a single value (or condition):
This is the most common and easiest comparison. Examples of this are – count of all values > 20, sum of values between 5 and 23, count of employees in purchasing department etc.
We have built in formulas in Excel to help us do this easily.
| Formula | What it does? |
| COUNTIF | Counts all the values in a range that meet a criteria. Example: COUNTIF(A1:A10,”>10″) Count of all values in A1:A10 more than 10 |
| SUMIF | Sums all the values in a range that meet a criteria Example: SUMIF(A1:A10,”>10″,B1:B10) Sum of all values in B1:B10 where corresponding value in A1:A10 is more than 10 |
| COUNTIFS* | Counts all the values in a range that meet multiple criterion Example: COUNTIFS(employees, “a*”,departments, “Purchasing”) Counts the number of employees in Purchasing department whose name starts with letter a. |
| SUMIFS* | Sums all the values in a range that meet multiple criterion Example: SUMIFS(salaries, employees, “a*”,departments, “Purchasing”) Sums up the salary of employees in Purchasing department whose name starts with letter a. |
| SUMPRODUCT | Gives the sum of product of various lists. This formulas is very robust and can be used to compare lists and check against multiple conditions Example: SUMPRODUCT(salaries, departments=”Purchasing”, join_date>datevalue(“1-May-2009”),join_date<=datevalue(“1-May-2011”)) Sums up the salary of employees in Purchasing department who joined between 1-May-2009 and 1-May-2011. |
| AVERAGEIF* | Average of all the values in a range that meet a criteria Example: AVERAGEIF(A1:A10,”>10″,B1:B10) Average of all values in B1:B10 where corresponding value in A1:A10 is more than 10 |
| AVERAGEIFS* | Average of all the values in a range that meet multiple criteria Example: AVERAGEIFS(salaries, employees, “a*”,departments, “Purchasing”) Average salary of employees in Purchasing department whose name starts with letter a. |
* these formulas do not work in Excel 2003 or earlier versions.
Comparing a list of values with another list (array compare):
This is where it gets interesting. You have 2 lists of values, like in our last week’s problem. And you want to calculate some value, for eg. Sum of all donations where Amount Donated < Amount Pledged.
How do you go about this?
Well, this is where we use Array Formulas.
In the above case, assuming we have amount donated in lstGiven and amount pledged in lstPledged,
We can use the array formula =SUM((lstGiven)*(lstGiven<lstPledged)) to find the sum of all donations such that amount donated is less than amount pledged.
Note: You must press CTRL+SHIFT+Enter to get this formula work
How does this formula work?
- The formula checks for lstGiven < lstPledged and returns a bunch of TRUE, FALSE values.
- When you multiply this with lstGiven, Excel would convert TRUE, FALSE to 1 and 0 and then multiply.
- Since 0 multiplied by anything would 0, we end up with a bunch of donation values where donated amount is less than pledged amount.
- Once all the values are there, the SUM would just add them up.
More examples & Illustration:
Look at below image to understand how we can compare lists of values in Excel using Array formulas.
Solution to Donation Summary Calculation Problem:
I have made a video explaining how you can solve the last week’s homework. See it below or on our Youtube Channel.
Download the Excel Workbook for this.
Click here to download the Workbook with partial solution as shown in the video.
Click here to download the solution workbook and play with the formulas to learn more.
Share your tips on Array Formulas
Array formulas are quite powerful and robust. I use them all the time and love to learn more. So please share your tips and ideas using comments. Go!
25 Responses to “Display Alerts in Dashboards to Grab User Attention [Quick Tip]”
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which could also provide another piece of information.
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which can also provide another piece of information.
For Excel 2007, your formula should do the same as the Excel 2003 version, so that non-alert rows are blank - if they are 0, the unnecessary green icon will show
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !!! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
The Complete formula [Don't Know how it got cut ]
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
PS : Use in single line [I have split it to avoid cuts 😉 ]
Hi Chandoo..
why it is not displaying the complete formula..
anyways here is the balance
"=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153), IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155), IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))"
@Rohit... your formulas are fine. Just that the width of comment area is fixed and hence my website is cropping it at 640pixels. I just edited your formula and added few white spaces so that it wraps nicely.
Very good idea btw.. kudos!
Hi,
Maybe just go for 'bold' ; 'underline' or 'italic' to draw the users attention? Those methods (if those can be called methods) are used cross media type (books, journals, blogs, billboards, ...) to guide the readers eye to valuable information.
Just a basic thought
@Tom.. good idea..
[...] has a very nice writeup on how to add such alerts to dashboard sheets. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Divide your data set into workbooksHow to enforce [...]
Hi Chandoo,
You certainly grabbed my attention! although I wasn't sure what my brother (Suresh) and cousin (Shyam) were doing right, and I was doing wrong? 😉
I love your blog btw - Many thanks for all your hard work in unravelling the secrets and mysteries of Excel!
Best regards
Ramesh
I thought I saw an advertisment for a book about learning excel called excel himalaya or something. It cost about 35.00 us money but seemed to have the things I need to have my admin assistant to start to use. I was hoping to start with this book and then send her to school if she shows some interest and aptitude. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks
Great web site and information!!!!
@Jeff... checkout http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/08/25/excel-everest-review/
thanks, your website is awesome!
[...] Alerts to highlight focus areas [...]
[...] There are lots of numbers in this dashboard. I would suggest adding few more visualizations like showing indicators or applying conditional formatting or replacing a table with a chart. This would reduce the [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo
Firstly thanks for all the cool tips on how to use Excel better.
I am new to the site and have a question which you may be able to assist with but dont know if these comment boxes are the best way of asking ?
I am looking at assets and trying to calculate the depreciation total by taking a year (say 2010) adding the expected life of the asset (say 10 years) then comparing that to a future date (say 2015) using an IF statement. The calculation in normal is - IF((year in col B (2010) plus 10years)>year 2015, add a years depreciation, otherwise leave blank). The converted date value does not appear able to add 10 years in order to compare it to 2015. Am I missing something ?
I use the “IF” Statement in conjunction with Conditional Formatting in MS Excel to give verbiage to alert one of a required action, dependant on a review date. This makes a visual stimulus, plus it clues one as to what the conditional format is trying to warn you about and what follow-up actions are required.
Wow, I'm really impressed with dashboards. I had no idea this stuff was even possible with excel. I'd like to offer an interactive dashboard to my customers, showing analytics of their data. I have a .pdf file with the datapoints. I'd like them to enter the data on my website, and be able to see their data. Is something like that possible.
Hi Chandoo,
I've recently purchased the package for both templates.
In the portfolio dashboard,under the calculations worksheet, I'm attempting to change the date range in the gantt chart to show only the range of the project that starts in late 2013. How do I do this?
Thanks
Adam
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo,
I'm new at Excel Dashboard and found your blog really useful and helpful! It's very nice of you that you dedicate your time to do this.
Could you please explain how can I use Alerts based on dates on a Dashboar?
For example, if a target date is coming closer to the actual date, the alert is yellow or red.
I'd really appreciate some help!
Thank you
Where can I download the file Excel of Averall Statistics ???
Thanks a lot.